Courts in the District

For the administration of justice, several courts of law are established in the District Shikarpur. Every court has its own jurisdiction which exercises its powers, laid down by the law, for provision of justice to the litigants. Some details of these courts are given below:

District Judiciary:

The Subordinate Judiciary may be broadly divided into two classes’ i.e. (i) civil court, established under the West Pakistan Civil Court ordinance 1962 and (ii) criminal courts, created under the Criminal Procedure code 1898. In addition, there also exist other courts and tribunals of civil and criminal nature, created under special laws and enactments. Their jurisdiction, power and functions are specified in the statutes creating them. The decisions and judgments of such special courts are assailable before the superior judiciary (High Court and/or Supreme Court) through revision or appeal.

Pakistan has adopted a federal system, having four provinces. Each province has been divided into Sessions Divisions, each headed by a District & Sessions Judge. The hierarchy of the subordinate Civil Courts from top to bottom is, District Judge, Additional District Judge, Senior Civil Judge, Civil Judge first class, 2nd class and 3rd class. Similarly, the hierarchy of criminal courts is sessions Judge, Additional Sessions Judge, Judicial Magistrate First class, 2nd class and 3rd class. Law fixes their pecuniary and territorial jurisdictions. Appeal against the decisions of civil courts lie to the District Judge and to the High court, if the value of the suit exceeds specified amount similarly, in keeping with the quantum of penalty, appeals against criminal courts lie to Sessions judge or High Court.

The subordinate courts (civil and criminal) have been established and their jurisdiction defined by law. They are supervised and controlled by the respective High Court. The administration of justice, however, is a provincial subject and thus the subordinate courts are organized and the term and conditions of service of judicial officers determined under the provincial laws and rules. The issues of recruitments, promotions and other terms and conditions of service together with disciplinary proceedings, etc. are dealt with under the provincial civil servants acts and the rules framed there under. Until recently the appointing authority for judicial officers happened to be the provincial government but with the separation of the judiciary from the executive, such authority has been transferred to the High Court.

Initial recruitment as Civil Judge-Cum-Judicial Magistrate is made through a competitive examination consisting of a written test and viva voice. The viva voce Committee consists of the Members of the Public Service Commission as well as Judges of the High Court.

A selection committee, consisting of the judges of the High Court, decides the issue of promotion of Judge. For appointment as Additional District & Sessions Judge, quota is fixed for service personnel as well as induction from the Bar. Appointment of District & Sessions Judge is by promotion on the basis of seniority-cum-fitness from among the serving judicial officers.

After appointment, the civil Judges are usually attached for a few weeks to the court of Senior Civil Judge/District & Sessions Judge to get practical training. They also receive specialized training at the Federal Judicial Academy Islamabad and respective provincial academies. Such training is comprised of education in various substantive laws, court management, case processing and judicial procedure.

Family Court

Section 4 of the West Pakistan Family Courts Act, 1964 provides that the family Courts established under Section 3 shall have exclusive jurisdiction to entertain, hear and adjudicate upon matters specified in Part 1 of the Schedule which are as follows:

Dissolution of marriage, including “Khula”

Dower

Maintenance.

Restitution of Conjugal Rights

Custody of Children, and the visitation rights of Parents to meet them.

Guardianship

Jactitation of Marriage

Dowry

Personal Property and belongings of wife.

A woman married under Muslim Law is entitled to obtain a decree for dissolution of her marriage under the dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939 on any one or more of the following grounds. click here for more detail

Green Court

Under the proposed law, the Sindh government would set up the Environment Tribunals and Green Courts to hear the complaints against the violators of environment protection law. The Environmental Tribunals shall consist of a chairperson, who is, or has been, or is qualified for appointment as a Judge of the Sindh High Court to be appointed after consultation with the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court. Besides two members of the tribunal to be appointed by the government, of which at least one shall be a technical member with suitable professional qualifications and experience in the environmental fields. The draft law stated that the Environmental Tribunals shall hear the complaints of any aggrieved person, who has given notice of not less than thirty days to the Environment Protection Agency. “In exercise of its criminal jurisdiction, the Environmental Tribunal shall have the same powers as are vested in Court of Session under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act V of 1898), while tribunals shall have the same powers as an appellate court in the code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Act V of 1908)”, the proposed law added. According to proposed law, all the contraventions punishable under sub-section (2) of section 21 shall exclusively be triable by the Green Courts designated as such by the High Court, that is the court of the Senior Civil Judges –cum-Judicial Magistrates at the District Headquarters and the court of Civil Judges-1-cum-Judicial Magistrates at the Sub-Divisions. The Green Courts would be powers to give punishment of fine of Rs0.5 million against the violators of the law of section 13 and 15. In the proposed law, the green courts and environmental tribunals shall have powers of passing sentence of fine of Rs5 million to the accused violators of the law.